SIMPLE PIANO VOICINGS FOR BLUES ‘The voicings below are designed to give the non-keyboard player a basic blues sound by using only two tones - the 3rd and 7th of each chord. These voicings should be memorized. ‘The voicings can and should be played with the corresponding recorded tracks on the record. You may want to turn the piano channel off and practice with only the bass and drum channel. I recommend practicing these voicings with the right hand while the left hand sounds the root of each chord. Mix your rhythms but do not add or subtract measures or beats from the original twelve measure chorus. After getting the feel of the voicings in the right hand, switch the votciugs to the left hand. This will leave your right hand free to improvise or practice scales etc. Example: Let the left hand play the voicings to Blues in G concert while the right hand improvises on the G Blues scale. The G blues scale contains these tones ~ G Bb C Cf DF &G. Note: In group playing or when playing with the record, the left hand should play the voicings and the right hand should improvise. The roots of the chords will be sounded by the bass man. wm eis 7 Ey (Cubv ove serine Lowes, re. wabsuuesMINOR TO DOMINANT TO TONIC VOICINGS 1 These voicings are for piano players as well as instrumentalists. They will give you the sound heard many times by professional musicians on records. Memorize the voicings in all twelve keys and strive to get the feeling of each voicing. This is particularly important for non-piano players. Practice the voicings through the various root sequences at the bottom of page 2. Upon mastering the voicings with the right hand, menorize the voicings with the left hand and do not use a low root tone. This will leave the right hand free to improvise or practice scales, chords or patterns. Bhi £7 | ab | bai. 2 Je f pat rnwdr rms xm D| Dm 67 Oni, FT| 8 || Bi. £7 | A a = Seu 2 ee = FR = ae $e ie ee | . G | Gu. C7 dkedied fe » cs -—_ ie +a > tc BFP F TFB sts TM = I have written roman numerals under each chord voicing to show you the relationship of the minor (II) chord moving to the dominant seventh (V7) chord which in turn moves to the major (I) chord. The progression of chords I1,V7, to I is very coumon in jazz and Volume 3 of this series of play a long books and records is called THE II - V7 - I PROGRESSION.cu ot Ty cr DR Ft Fw 7 | BP | Baar | oP = zmmes xz nh Below are several good voicings tat should be practiced in all keys. The numbers represent nots of whatever scalechord you are playing. 9 5s 7 7 3 5 GOOD VOICINGS: 5 20) 3 PRACTICE IN ALL KEYS - BOTH HANDS! 3729) EXAMPLE: MAJOR C MAJOR CMAJOR _CMINOR C MINOR C MINOR 7 Another common voicing used by many jazz keyboard players is listed below in example C. u vr 1 Play these through all twelve keys just like you did in examples A and B. In an actual Minor Dom.7th Major (Tonic) playing situation you would mix up the voicings from examples A, B and C fora variety 1 3 7 of sounds and to keep your voicings from moving all over the keyboard. Having three 5 92) 5 ‘voicings for each minor, major, dom 7th chord gives the player much more variety and 3 7 3 color. And it helps keep the voicings centrally located in the center of the keyboard. 20) 6 29) highly recommend JAZZ/ROCK VOICINGS FOR THE CONTEMPORARY KEYBOARD PLAYER by Dan Haerle for anyone interested in finding better ways to voice chords. Volume 3, THE II-V7-I PROGRESSION would be the next logical step in learning how to apply the above voicings. I also suggest PIANO VOICINGS transcribed from Vol. 1 play-a-long recording...book $4.95.